ABC News Launches on Apple TV, Canada Gets AOL On, Willow and More

ABC News has launched a new Apple TV channel today in the U.S. providing 24/7 access to live and on-demand content. According to MacRumors, the ABC News channel, which offers a variety of news and entertainment offerings, including local news in select markets and access to five decades of historical footage, will expand to Canada and other countries in the next few weeks.

“ABC News on Apple TV offers more choices for how, when and where to get the video content you want. Unlike other news offerings, ABC News provides a robust line-up of original and on-demand content and up to four live streaming events at once, allowing viewers to select and view the live news they care about most. From court trials and breaking news to the daily White House press briefing, live continuous coverage of the day’s top stories, videos and more are instantly accessible with ABC News on Apple TV”.

Below is a list of features on the new ABC News Apple TV channel:

24/7 access to live and on-demand video with four separate live video streams to choose from.

Video news updates on the hour and four to five live reports per day to cover breaking news.

Beautiful photos deserve beautiful displays and if you’ve ever shown off your photos on a TV, you know how stunning they look on a large high definition screen! For the first time with Apple TV, sign into Flickr and view all your photos, videos, Favorites, Albums, and Groups. In one click, make any album into a slideshow or screensaver ready to share with friends, or customize in real-time with over fifteen different slideshow and screensaver modes.

I think this, and others are an attempt to get local content on the machine. If you do that, then its half the battle with competing against dish or cable tv content. But I agree, snoozearama.

http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/ Gary

By far the best implementation of Netflix, plus the power of AirPlay to stream content to your TV. All for $99. What’s not to love?

Al

Still lacking in content compared to US. Also needs a major boost in buffering capabilities as, right now, skipping forward or back a minute or two (let alone continuous fast forwarding or rewinding) ALSO results in a major snoozefest as you wait for it to rebuffer.

websnap

This is where i will disagree with you, PS3 has the best implementation of Netflix – by far (though I have not seen what it looks like on a PS4). Just for the fact that it plays the next episode right after… amazing.

(personal opinion, of course)

Eric

Streaming is key from a Mac! I find movies “online” and tv shows and just watch them whenever I need. No cables to hookup, just hit play and it works!!!!!!

http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/ Gary

Exactly. Those who use Air Video to stream to Apple TV via AirPlay (no file conversion required)…know it’s so easy and just works.

http://www.ryantoyota.com/ Ryan

It’s actually for this reason that I much prefer the Apple TV to my PS3 for watching Netflix. I HATE the autoplay feature, always collapsing the show into a tiny window before it’s over. Boo.